Former slave remembered as happy, hardworking businessman
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| Sandy Hamburg |
As I was researching Fifer and Blanks, two highly respected men in Kerrville’s black community, I came across the story of Sandy Hamburg, a hard-working man, known for his bright smile and friendly character. The accounts of Hamburg’s life captured my interest, and the original story was put on hold.
I also feel that, with this column, I am settling a falsehood that was often told about Hamburg. It was a falsehood that stirred up the temper of a man who was known to be genial and upbeat.
In 1861, there were a handful of families in Kerr County that owned slaves. Dr. Charles Ganahl, who settled in Center Point in 1856, had 21 slaves, making him the largest slave owner in Kerr County. There were at least four other slave owners in the county at that time, including George Kendrick Moore.
George Kendrick Moore, a native of Tennessee, settled in Center Point in 1854. Among those who came here with Moore was a young slave boy named Sandy Hamburg. Moore came to Kerr County earlier than the other slave-holders listed in the county, possibly making Sandy Hamburg the first black person — or one of the first — to come to Kerr County.
Hamburg didn’t know exactly when he was born. All he could say about his birth is that it took place somewhere in the Holston River Country of Tennessee. He was stolen from his mother when he was 6 weeks old by a slave trader. The slave trader “sold him down river” and, when his new owner came to Texas, Hamburg came with him.
Hamburg’s first memory as a child was sitting on the banks of the Guadalupe River, watching the water flow along the banks. During his youth, he had more than one encounter with the Comanche and boasted that he once outran two braves on horseback, outdistancing them with his “barefoot speed.” Another memory he shared from childhood was seeing the Guadalupe rise out of its banks “and run with clear water, when there had been no rainfall.”
After emancipation, a young Hamburg worked as a chauffeur for an ox team, driving freight from San Antonio to Fort Concho. He also worked for early settlers J.M. Starkey and Sidney Rees.
As an adult, he lived at the Rocky Mill Settlement near Luckenbach in Gillespie County and later on the banks of Town Creek in Kerrville. In 1877, he married Anna White in Gillespie County. They had a son, Joe, in 1881. The couple divorced around 1887. In 1889, he married Annie Miller in Kerrville and they had two children, Mary and Henry. In 1898 Hamburg married Agnes Foster in Kerrville.
In an article written about Hamburg in 1929, he is quoted as saying that he was married four times, and that the wives previous to Agnes were “all gathered to their fathers,” which I believe means he was widowed more than once. To confuse matters, Hamburg’s obituaries only mention three marriages.
From June 1887 to March 1889, Hamburg served time in the state prison in Huntsville for “willfully burning the personal property of another” in Kerrville. I tried to find out more about the incident that sent him to prison, but had little luck. News stories from the 1800s rarely mentioned a man’s name in a news story if he happened to be black. Except in the case of severe crimes, only the man’s race was mentioned.
There was a case of vigilante justice in 1887 that involved a group of men in the Town Creek area in which a home was burned, but there is no indication that mixed races were involved in the incident. From his intake records, I learned that Hamburg stood 5-feet-10 and weighed 174 pounds. He also had a scar on his right shoulder and another scar on the index finger of his left hand.
The thing about this chapter in his life is that it didn’t tarnish Hamburg’s reputation or define the rest of his life. In spite of the time he spent in prison, he was able to return to Kerrville, where he was accepted back into the community, married and started a business.
After his return to Kerrville, Hamburg made a living doing yard work and trash collection. He was the main person in town to hire if you had items to haul away to the dump. He would collect trash and discarded items with a wagon and pair of donkeys. An article written about him in the Nov. 14, 1929, issue of the Kerrville Mountain Sun said, “For years upon end he served as a sort of semi-official manicurist for Kerrville yards. With his burro and ramshackle cart, Sandy made a noble effort to keep the city clean of trash; but the burden became too great. When Kerrville put on city airs and established a municipal sanitary department to handle garbage disposal, Sandy was glad. He retired, and now devotes his time to “farming” his tiny plot along the banks of Town Creek. He can produce proof of his prowess as an agriculturalist in the form of huge sweet potatoes.”
The same article said that Hamburg’s approach to life was simple. He didn’t bother about the intricate affairs of the modern world, and he was happy with his lot in life. The article also observed that while the years have bent his back and left rheumatism, the sands trickling through time’s hour glass did not erase his smile.
In 1928, shortly before his death, Hamburg became a member of the Mount Olive Baptist Church in Kerrville and often told members of his family he regretted not having joined the church earlier in life.
Hamburg died June 26, 1930. His wife, Agnes, two of his children and several step-children survived him. His obituary stated that while it wasn’t known when he was born, his age was estimated to be around 100 years old, but I don’t think that was true.
In the article written about him in 1929, Hamburg stated that he didn’t know his exact age but estimated it to be around 79 and got “belligerent” when then interviewer corrected him, saying his age was closer to 100. The interviewer preferred to believe what the “old timers” said about Hamburg’s age rather than the man himself. If anyone had stopped to do the math, they would have found out that he was right about his age. By my calculations, he would have been around 80-85 at the time of his death, regardless of public opinion. If Hamburg was brought here as an infant, or even as a toddler in 1854, there is no way he was 100 years old in 1930.
In spite of the controversy surrounding his age, all accounts of Hamburg mentioned his bright smile and genial personality. It was also noted that he was highly respected by both the black and white residents of Kerrville, who were all “sad to see him pass away.”
Hamburg was buried in the Tivy Mountain Cemetery, where his son, Henry, is also buried. I would love to know if any of his descendants still live in the area.
Such an interesting man. In looking at his picture, I can see the kindness in his face.
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